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Introduction

ABIT SILURO FX 5600 DT 256MB & FX 5600 ULTRA DT 128MB

Midrange madness !

Who doesn't want the latest technology?. Most firms make their names with high-end gear, but products in the upper echelons of any sector generally don't sell as well as a manufacturer might hope. We all have aspirations of owning the latest NVIDIA FX 5900 Ultra or 256MB ATi Radeon 9800 Pro. Benchmarks in all the glitzy online review and print press show them to be technological marvels, capable of beating games, even new games, into benchmarking submission. Massive core speeds, allied to impressive memory bandwidth and a whole host of other marvelous goodies, means that the most desirable products are the ones with astronomical price tags. Consider the impressive FX 5900 Ultra cards for a second. A full, retail example from one of the big players often results in minimal change from a staggering £400 outlay. Indeed, folks not au fait with the PC hardware world will often be seen stating that "one could buy a car for that sort of money". And, to be fair, that's not too far off the mark.

It's far easier justifying an upgrade, whatever the component, if the costs involved are of more sane levels. Lower priced components are usually beneficiaries of the technology that's gone into creating the highest performing product. The graphics card world is a case in point. In the all-important £100 - £150 sector, price points which are keenly targeted by all and sundry, both NVIDIA and ATi have set their stalls out in no uncertain fashion. Both companies' catalogues carry DX9+ cards that are directly related to the powerhouse 5900 Ultra and 9800 Pro. Both companies also know that sales failure in this crucial sector will put them back considerably. NVIDIA has the FX 5600 / Ultra cards and ATi responds with its 9600 / PRO series of VGA wonders. Both sets of cards are manufactured on an advanced 0.13-micron process, and both feature impressive specifications, including full DX9 and OGL1.4 support.

ABIT has been one of NVIDIA's main card partners for some time now. Its popular Siluro line usually plays host to each and every GPU that NVIDIA has a hand in. Today we're looking at two ABIT cards that represent its interest in the crucial £100-£150 sector. Let's get down and dirty with the ABIT Siluro FX 5600 DT 256MB and FX 5600 Ultra DT 128MB cards. A few surprises will be unearthed during the way. Hang on for the ride.

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